Home owner discovers ancient underground city beneath his house in Anatolia

Ancient Origins ^ | August 25, 2014 | April Holloway

[SunkenCiv]

A home owner living in the Melikgazi district of Kayseri province in Anatolia made a surprising discovery while clearing out an area under his house – a subterranean city, of which 4,000 square metres have been excavated so far, according to a report in Hurriyet Daily News. The region of Anatolia in Turkey is famous for its underground cities, particularly in the region of Cappadocia where more than 40 complete underground cities and 200 underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages, secret rooms, and ancient temples have been found. Mustafa Bozdemir, 50, was bequeathed a house in Melikgazi five years ago and decided to carry out restoration work. He explained that what he thought was a single-storey house, turned out to have multiple levels of ancient rooms beneath it. “We also found some remains during the cleaning works such as human bones. They were examined by a team from Erciyes University,” said Bozdemir.

[afraidfortherepublic]

They got sun because of the holes (skylights) left in the roof. As far as water, I don’t know if they got more than the natural rain. Fresno is a very hot and dry climate, and most plants need artificial water (irrigation). Yet, my elderly mother’s yard got NOTHING in the last 10 years of her ife (in the back). The grass dried up, as did the weeks. But, the established orange and grapefruit trees continue to bear fruit and to grow just on the little bit of rain that they gt each year and the fact that their roots reach deep.

Of course, my father had holes blasted before he planted those trees in the early 1950s, and the article about the Underground Gardens said that Forestiere used no dynamite to build his complex. I think that Forestiere used some type of sestem to gather whatever water he could and to portion it out as needed.

My father planted a fruitless mulberry that got so large that it nearly knocked down the house. That tree received no water (other than the less than 10 inches of natural rain per year) the last 15-20 years of my mother’s life. It took 5 men a week to cut that tree down and haul it away.

[Domangart]

22,000 copper coins found will show up in the search engine.

[submarinerswife]

save for later

[ThanhPhero]

Fear of barbarians was the prime motivator in at least some of the underground arrangements. Barbarians tended to overrun these areas fairly often, like every few years or marauding bands from beyond the civilized areas would raid. It only takes realization that this is a recurring phenomenon for folks to start to dig when the digging is relatively easy and the underground structures stable. Apparently they survive the endemic earthquakes better than surface structures. Entrances and vents are hidden and Tatars or others find empty towns to sack, no TVs to steal and no women to rape. They were also easier to defend when the bandits did get into them.

[Old Student]

The “rock” there is easy to dig, carve, excavate, etc., being volcanic tuffa, IIRC. Visited the area when I was stationed in Turkey in the mid-80’s. All the level ground was fields and pasture, pretty much. Pretty easy to go into the sides of the hills and gullies, and if you were patient, you could have a palace compared to the sort of house you would build on the flat areas.

Bill in OKC